Automatic manipulators are used in many technical contexts. They have at least one arm having at its end a tool support. Means are provided to displace this--usually rigid--arm in different movements; it is often necessary to couple the tool support with the end of the rigid arm by means of an articulation, allowing the tool to be given very varied orientations in relation to the longitudinal axis of the rigid arm.
An articulation for a manipulator arm is already known, which is able to have wide-ranging movements, but which, having a complicated structure, is costly and unreliable; this known articulation is of sort essentially made up of sort of "vertebrae" articulated with each other; one can see that the driving of such an articulation, for the automatic control of the orientation of the tool, requires means that are complex and difficult to create.